Refinish along of a combo gun

T

Tracker0721

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So I’m hoping to have this project done and at the range within 2 weeks so as I go if you wanna toss out any recommendations that’d be cool.

Here’s what I’ve got. Baikal 222 rem under a 12ga. The plan is to strip the current checkering and finish, reshape the forend a wee bit and pretty much leave the buttstock as is. Refinish and do a wrap around 20lpi checkering up front and the basic 2 panels on the rear. Parts and barrel will be polished and blued as right now she’s ROUGH. Also the stock is gonna meet the saw and I’ll install a limbsaver. Also I’ll install a rail if I ever get it from Slovenia and install a 1-8 atibal scope. OH! And the trigger will be stoned and the rifle barrel trigger will be bent back into place. Possibly more. Here’s where she sits now.

https://ibb.co/jyRxe8
 
The old adage, "Can't turn a sows ear into a silk purse" comes to mind. But it's your time and money.
 
Haha I’m in gunsmithing school and need a good project to play with. So cost is nothing except scope, rail, and limbsaver. The rest is free
 
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She’s broke alright. Rust, scratches, dents in the wood, poor checkering, stiff recoil pad, stiff triggers, and a bent trigger. And it’s a typical Russian gun so there’s actually nice walnut but it can’t be seen due to the thick stain/finish gunk combo.
 
I have one in 12ga over 308 imported by Remington as the Spartan model. I lightly sanded and refinished with several coats of Tru Oil using very fine steel wool between coats. Its best to give it 24 hours before sanding or steel wool. It looks much better. The checkering is functional but not nice to look at. I dabbed a fine coat on the checkering but of course did not use steel wool on it.

The wood is not half bad so if you take your time I'm sure you can make a huge improvement especially if you re-due the checkering.

The recoil pad is worthless so I removed and installed a shorter one to reduce the length of pull. The recoil is fierce with 12 gauge buckshot loads.
 
The Russians build a very robust firearm, but get a little sloppy on the finish and your going to fix that. Being a budding gunsmith you might want to do a rust blue on the gun just to get the practice in(deeper more beautiful color). Be carful with the triggers in stoning them as heavy 12ga loads can set off the rifle barrel. I've killed a couple of coyote with both barrels simultaneously discharged because I had set(set trigger on the rifle barrel)the rifle trigger for a longer shot and the coyote decided to keep coming so I used the shotgun.

One thing to think about you don't need heavy loads of buckshot in a combo gun. Unlike using a shotgun ONLY for coyotes that you have to load with heavy loads for the reach. A combo gun you can use pretty light loads in the shotgun barrel for the close in stuff and have the rifle barrel to reach beyond 40 yards. I load 1 1/4oz of NP BB's in the 12ga 2 3/4" and 1 oz of NP BB's in my 2 1/2" 16ga combos and drillings.

It sounds like you have a very interesting project in front of you.

Can I ask what type of scope mounting system it has on it from the factory, 11mm dovetail or drilled for weaver style bases. There are any number of rings for 11mm dovetails.
 
I was considering the rust blue but we have the hot salts too and that seems to be the preferred method of the school. I didn’t even think about that with the triggers. I might hold off on those.

It’s 12mm but I found a rail with rings built on made specifically for the izh 94. Keeps the scope ultra low rather than doing an adapter and rings. It finally made it to the US today from Europe. Took a week which I guess isn’t too bad. The scope I chose is a 30mm and quite awesome. 1-8x24 with a ballistic reticle for 62 grain 5.56 which actually mimicks a 40 grain Nosler 222 within a couple inches at the far never shoot at coyote that far range. Pretty neat.
 
Sounds sweet.

It will be a real plus to learn Rust bluing if you want to get into restoration work as hot salt bluing is very detrimental to soft solder joints on older sxs's and o/u's ribs.
 
I did not have much luck with the stock choke tubes and larger shot sizes so I bought aftermarket Trulock choke tubes. The first one I purchased was an extended .700 Full choke which worked well with all loads in 4 or 6 shot, 4 buck and OO buck. Then I bought an extra full .690 extended tube and the patterns tightened up for all shot sizes compared to the full choke. Then I bought a .670 turkey choke which shot 4, 6 shot and 4 buck the tightest and was equivalent to the .690 extra full with OO buck.
 
I have 2 of them in 223/12 and know several other people who have them. They're certainly not the most pretty or comfortable gun to shoot but man, do they shoot! I'm thinking about having Indian Creek build me a choke for one. Don't know what thread system it is but they are difficult to find after market chokes for. I'm a fan of anything combo and have a relative that loves them to. My uncle and I have 4 each of various brands. When my buddy and I were finished building our savages, we called them the worlds most expensive single-shot guns!
 
Well it ends up the chokes are carlson’s IM and IC not the stock ones. Pretty happy with that. Got it stripped, geometry changed a wee bit, sealer is drying. Doing permalyn which I really like using after my previous stocks with it compared to tru oil. The recoil pad and new checkering kit in 20 LPI rather then 18 that I’ve been using showed up so hopefully I’m on track to have this baby finished by months end. New addition to the list, mill a recoil cut into the scope mount to accept the one on the scope base. Apparently they’re supposed to have the cut from the factory. More fun.
 
Trulock makes chokes for the Baikal IZH-94/Remington Spartan. The patterns were not as tight as other tubes I have seen on the Internet but they were nice and even. No idea if other manufacturers make tubes compatible with Baikals or not.
 
Finally got a good finish built up and now it just needs polishing and checkering. The before shows how that Russian sealer hides the grain of an actually pretty nice piece.

2283.jpg


2285.jpg


I’ve got the forend metal polished and blued, I’ll post a picture of it tomorrow compared to the current bluing on the receiver.
 
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